Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-12-16
rs THINE HEART RIGHT?:"
Sunday Morning Services in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle.

DIR. Talmage Makes q Spiritual Diagnosis
Our Nature All Atwist and Askew and
Unjointcd-Th More We Think About
Heavenly Things the Better.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 4.-This is sacramento
day in Brooklyn Tabernacle. The more
than 1900 commitment members and
many strangers from all parts of the world
make it memorable scene. New mem.
bers we're received and some Of them were
baptized this morning.
The congregation, led by organ and cor
net, sang:
Denr dying Lamb thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church OF God
BE saved to sin no more.
The Rev. L. De Witt Talmage, D. D.,
preached. His subject was "Salutation
from the Chariot" and his text III. Kings
Y. 10: els thine heart right"
With mettled horses at full speed, for
he was celebrated for fast driving, Jehu,
the warrior and king, returns from battle.
But seeing Jehonadab, an acquaintance.
by the wayside. he shouts "Whoa. whoa!"
to the lathered span. Then, leaning over
to Jehonadab, Jehu salutes him in the
words Of the teXt-words not more APP
propriate for that hour and that place than
for this hour and place.
Is thine heart right: should like to
hear OF your physical health. Well my
self, l like to have everybody else WE'LL
and 80 might ask: Is your eyesight right,
your hearing right, your nerves right,
your Lungs right. your entire body right?
But I am busy to-day taking diagnosis of
the more important spiritual conditions.
/ should like to hear of your financial
welfare. / want everybody to have plenty
of money. ample apparel, large storehouse,
and comfortable residence. And ] might
ask: Is your business right, your income
right, your worldly surroundings right?
But what are these financial questions
compared with the inquiry as to whether
you have been able to pay your debts to
God; as to whether you are running your
self by the long credit system of the soul?
have known men 10 have no more than
one loaf of bread at time, and yet to own
a government bond of Heaven worth more
than the whole material universe.
The question / ask you to-day is not in
regard to your habits. make no inquiry
about your integrity, or you chastity, or
your sobriety. do not mean to stand on
the outside of the gate and ring the bell;
but coming up the steps open the door
and come to the private apartment of the
soul; and with the earnestness Of man
that must give an account for his days
work. l cry out, o man, o woman inn
mortal: Is thine heart right9
will not insult you by an argument to
prove that we are by nature all wrong. If
there be factory explosion and the
smoke-stacll be upset, and the wheels be
broken in two, and the engine unjointed,
and the ponderous bars be twisted, and a
man should look in and say that nothing
was the matter, you would pronounce him
a fool. Well, it needs no acumen to dis
cover that our nature is all atwist and
askew and unjointed. The thing doesn't
work right. The biggest trouble we have
in the world is with our souls.
Men sometimes say that though their
lives may not be Just right, their heart is
all right. Impossible! farmer never
puts the poorest apples on top of his bar
rel; nor does the merchant place the mean
est goods in the show window. The best
part of us is our outward life. | do not
stop to discuss whether we all fell in Adam,
for we have been our own Adam, and have
all eaten Of the forbidden fruit, and have
been turned out of the paradise Of holi-
ness and peace; and though the flaming
sword that stood at the gate to keep US out
has changed position and comes behind to
drive us in, we will not go.
The Bible account of us is not eXagger-
wretched and miserable and blind and
naked. Poor: the wretch that stands shiv-
ering on our doorstep on q cold day is not
SO much in need of bread as we are of spir-
itual help. Blind: why, the man whose
eyes persisted in the powder blast, and
who for these ten years has gone feeling
his way from street to street, is not in such
utter darkness as we. Naked: why, there
is not one rag of holiness left to hide the
shame Of our sin. Sick: why, the leprosy
has eaten into the head and the heart and
the hands and the feet, and the marasmus
of an everlasting wasting away has already
seized on some OF US.
But the meanest thing for q man to dc
is to discourse about an evil without point.
ing way to have it remedied. sneak OF
the thirst of your not tongue only that
may show you the living stream that drops
crystalline and sparkling from the Rock OF
Ages. and pours a river of gladness at YOU
feet. If show you the rents in your coat
il is only because the door Of Gods ward
robe now swings open, and here is robe
white with the fleece of the Lamb Of God
and of cut and make that an angel would
not be ashamed to wear. If snatch from
you the black, moldy bread that you are
munching, it is only to give you the bread
made out of the finest wheat that grows OIL
the celestial hills, and baked in the fires OF
the cross, and one crumb of which would
be enough to make all Heaven a banquet
Hear it, one and all, and tell it to your
friends when you go home, that the LORD
Jesus Christ can make the heart right.
First we need repenting heart. If fol
the last ten, twenty, or forty years of life
we have been going on the wrong way, it is
time that we turned around and started il
the opposite direction. If we offend GU,
friends we are glad to apologize. God is
our best friend. and yet how many of uf
have never apologized for the wrongs We
have done Him!
There is nothing that we SO much need
to get rid of as sin. 1t is a horrible bla:l
monster. 1t polluted Eden. 1t killed
Christ. 1t has blasted the world. NIer
keep dogs i'll kennels, and rabbits in
warren, and cattle in pen. What mar
that would be who would shut them up il
his parlor. But this foul dog of sin, anG
these herds of transgression, we have en-
tertained for many long year in our heart
which should be the cleanest, brightes
room in NIL our nature. Out with the vile
herd! Begore, we befoulers of an immor
tai nature! Turn out the beasts and lie,
Christ come in!
\ heather came to an early Christian
who had the reputation of curing diseases
The Chriation said. AVON nncf hove al